CAFE FRESH

Where: Cafe Fresh, 498 S State Street, Orem

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 2

What We Ordered: Border Salad, Turkey Cranberry Sandwich (another time: Tomato Basil Soup)

What It Cost: $16.17

So, I've shopped at Good Earth Natural Foods a couple of times, because you know, there's always that one weird recipe that needs some obscure ingredient like xanthan gum or coconut flour, and they are the place to hit up for that. But I never really got interested in the little Cafe Fresh attached to the natural foods store until one BYU football game where I was FREEEEEZING and wanted something to warm me up, and hot chocolate just didn't sound right, and I bought a tomato basil soup from a little Cafe Fresh stand at the stadium. I don't know if they still do football games anymore, so I don't want to get your hopes up, but at that moment, that soup was EXACTLY what I needed and it tasted sooo good. After that, I naturally wanted to see if the rest of their menu was noteworthy. 

I ordered the Border Salad, which comes with all sorts of excitement like brown rice, black beans, roasted corn, jicama, sunflower seeds, and jack cheese. The salads all come with a side of a roll, but I asked if I could substitute it for fruit, which they did, but for an additional cost. The salad had a great mix of greens and it was enormous, and for some reason, they decided to serve it in those annoying slanted salad bowls that look really pretty, but are terrible for actually mixing the toppings and dressing in. Which would have been a problem except there was a more pressing issue in my way -- they had run out of forks! It was very odd. So we had to wait around for a while until they could find forks, which I thought was weird that it took so long, since they are basically located inside a grocery store which surely sells some sort of fork. The fruit was fine.

Owen got the turkey cranberry sandwich, which is served on German rye bread. And it was just the type of sandwich we both love -- the kind that you look forward to making after Thanksgiving with your extra turkey, and the bread was just the right amount of heartiness to support all of the sandwich's inner goodness. It came with salsa and chips on the side, which were tasty as well.

What You Should Do: I have to admit, I'm a little divided on this one. It's places like this that I wish I could give half stars, because I probably would give 2.5 stars. The service was not great (who runs out of forks, when half of your menu is salads and you aren't even very busy?), but the SOUP and Owen's sandwich were so good. My salad was also pretty good -- I thought the sunflower seeds were a little weird, but I'm a jicama-aholic (say that 10x fast), so I was mostly sold. I'm going to say I like it. It's not the best soup/sandwich/salad joint, but if you're already on your way buying chia seeds or Veganaise, then you won't be disappointed for a quick lunch.

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Wing Nutz

I bet that I have lulled you into a false sense of security lately with all these great places to eat...but beware! Not everything in Utah County is fantastic (you already knew that of course), so let me tell you about a place you should certainly skip.

Where: Wing Nutz, 1054 S 750 E, Orem

Who Went: Chelsey & my sister-in-law Abby

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Two small orders of wings - 1 with Jamaican Jerk sauce and 1 with Teriyaki sauce

What It Cost: $12

What We Thought: 


Let me just start off by saying that I made my first mistake when I decided that it would be a good idea to take my 11-year-old sister-in-law here before going to see the movie Monte Carlo (yeah, the one with Selena Gomez and Leighton Meester). The bar-like atmosphere may be fun for people who want to escape the normal Provo atmosphere, but it was no place for two relatively young girls on a Saturday afternoon.

Despite being female and a chick-flick lover, I do love my wings, as you all are very aware (sorry, will cut back on the wings posts...someday...). So I was excited to see their menu with a variety of sauces, and thought that maybe since they were baked instead of fried I could justify them as being more healthy or something. There were only two problems with this.

First off, the sauces were sadly boring. I could hardly distinguish between the two flavors, and it was a very superficial taste since they did not penetrate the actual wing at all. Sure they have lots of sauce options, but what's the point if none of them taste that great? Also, since the wings were baked, they didn't have any of that crunch or fantastic typical texture of wings. Such a disappointment. Not to mention that they felt incredibly overpriced for the small batch that we got (5 wings each at $6/order). Or the 25 minute wait we had to get 10 total wings for a place that pretty much only serves wings and there were only 2 other parties in the restaurant. I almost missed my movie!

What You Should Do: Avoid. There are so many other great wing places in the area, you really shouldn't waste your time or money here. The service is slow and uninviting, the prices are too high, and the wings just aren't that great. And definitely don't bring your 11-year-old sister-in-law here. It's just too weird.

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Winger's Grill & Bar

I feel like since I love wings so much, I should start a new weekly thing -- Wings Wednesday! Just kidding, we don't eat wings nearly often enough (or maybe we do...and I just don't want to admit it...), but in any case, here's some details about some of our favorite wings, on a Wednesday!

Where: Winger's Grill & Bar, 610 S State Street, Orem

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 3

What We Ordered: Trip 1: 5 original wings, 5 boneless wings with hot buffalo sauce; Trip 2: 8 original wings

What It Cost: Trip 1: $19.00, Trip 2: $12.00

What We Thought: 

Whether or not you will like Winger's is all based on your wing preferences -- if you hate any kind of sweet sauce on your wings, and prefer them straight up with buffalo sauce or something, then you will probably not enjoy the original wings. However, if you like them sweet and sticky and saucy like we do, you will love them! We got these 8 piece original wings to go one day after some shopping at Provo Town Center mall. Best decision ever. We inhaled them in literally 15 seconds. Okay, not literally, but it was a little embarrassing how fast we ate them.

I have to admit, the service at Winger's is not always the greatest. When we dined at the store on State Street, our server was very inattentive, rolled her eyes behind our backs when we asked more popcorn (which they serve instead of breadsticks or something), and took forever to refill our water even though our mouths were ON FIRE after the hot buffalo sauce. If you're looking for a great experience, this may not be the place, but you can just do what we did and get the original wings to go. You will be very happy. Also, the boneless wings kind of felt a little lame and chicken-nugget-esque after eating the regular wings...if you're going to go for wings, go all out and get the messy kind. Though if you are dining with children, the boneless may be an easier option.

What You Should Do: Go. But know you probably won't have the best service and you're just there for the wings, honestly. The rest of the menu isn't anything special, but they are called Winger's for a reason.

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Roll Up Crepes

Where: Roll Up Crepes, 1605 S State Street, Orem

Who Went: Trip 1: Chelsey & Kirsten (my sister-in-law), Trip 2: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 2

What We Ordered: Trip 1: Southwest Chicken Bacon Crepe & Turkey Pesto Cranberry Crepe. Trip 2: "The Awkward First Date" (Bananas Foster Crepe with Vanilla Ice Cream) and "The Break Up"  (chocolate ice cream, Oreos, chocolate syrup - I'm pretty sure that is what the name of the crepe was, but they don't have the dessert menu updated online so I couldn't check)

What It Cost: $10.67

What We Thought:

I'm pretty sure that crepes are the new "hot thing" and there are crepe shops popping up all over the place in this area. This was one of the first, so of course we needed to check it out. To be honest with you, I can't really figure out what the actual name of this place is -- Roll Up Crepes, The Roll Up, and Roll Me Up Crepes are all options, so if anyone knows for sure, you should fill me in! 

The shop itself has some unique decor -- I described it as quaint, Owen thought it was just creepy. Take your pick I guess. The first time I went, I visited with my sister-in-law for lunch right after it opened. It wasn't too busy and we got our food pretty quickly which was good, and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I thought that the combination of turkey, cranberry and basil was a nice mix, and it was pretty filling. Kirsten's was the best - I was worried that it would just taste like a burrito in a weird tortilla, but it tasted fresher and lighter, with a spicy and flavorful sauce. It was a fun trip and I looked forward to going there again.

Then last Saturday evening, I convinced Owen that instead of frozen yogurt, we should stop by Roll Up Crepes for dessert. It was pretty busy, so we tried to order quickly and grab a seat in the rather crowded restaurant. I was pretty excited for my Bananas Foster crepe because I love caramelized bananas, and I was interested to see how ice cream would taste inside a crepe. 

This was what I got:

One skinny pathetic banana on top of some weirdly crunchy caramel, and wayyy too much butter spilling all over the place. And no ice cream to be found. I was a little confused because the crepe itself looked way too thin to have any ice cream inside, so I opened it up and found nothing. I was really looking forward to that ice cream (and I paid for it!), so I kind of pushed myself up to the front, showed the girl at the register my plate, and told her that someone forgot to put my ice cream with the crepe. "Are you sure you ordered one with ice cream?" she asked me. Are you kidding me? How rude! She totally didn't believe me, so I had to get out the menu and show her the one that I had ordered and point out where it said that it came with vanilla ice cream. Then she told me, "Oh, well, we are out of vanilla ice cream." I feel like that would have been a good thing to tell me when I had ordered. She just looked at me like "What do you want me to do about it?" so I asked if I could get a different kind of ice cream. They had butter pecan, which went fine with bananas foster, so I got that kind after many huffy and disgruntled looks. She didn't want to put on gloves to get me some ice cream, so she called up someone from the kitchen and I had to wait there awkwardly and embarrassed while 10 people were waiting behind me in line.

So once I finally got my ice cream, I dug in to my fairly destroyed crepe and discovered that it was nothing special. Basically the only flavor I could taste was all the butter that pooled around my plate, and I felt super heavy and gross afterwards.

Owen's was a little better, thankfully, because it's pretty hard to go wrong with chocolate and Oreos. The presentation was boring, and the flavors were also a little boring, but it was fine and satisfied the craving for sweet. Meh.

What You Should Do: Go if you have to. I would recommend going for lunch and getting a savory crepe, but I was so humiliated by the whole ice cream incident that I probably won't be going again. It doesn't matter how good your food is if the experience and customer service are a huge disappointment.

Wallabys Smokehouse

Where: Wallabys Smokehouse, 131 N State Street, Lindon (they also used to have a location in Provo, but it's closed now)

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Beef Brisket, Fresh Garden Salad, Hand Pulled Pork, Smashers

What It Cost: Free (was at a catered event), but would have cost $22.68

What We Thought:


If you're going to only have a few things on the menu, those things better be amazing. Wallabys is known for its smoked meat, especially the shredded beef and pork. We sampled their food at Owen's mission reunion, and I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. Maybe it's because I grew up helping my dad with catering events, but I have pretty high expectations for catered food. Catering events are great advertising -- you want your food to be so good that people are intrigued enough to come to your restaurant in the future. There should be great presentation, helpful customer service, and plenty of food.

Wallabys had none of that.

The food was 35 minutes late, and was sloppily thrown into a few heating dishes on a table. They ran out of their famous "smashers" (mashed potatoes but with a cheesy Australian accent) before everyone was able to make it through the line, and if you forgot to try something on your first sampling, forget about seconds. The worst part was that they made it seem like it was our fault, telling people to take smaller amounts of the food so everyone could have some.

The food was okay...the beef brisket was a little too salty for me (sadly, most beef brisket is), but the pork was pretty juicy and tasted good on top of the smashers (for those who were lucky enough to get some). The fresh garden salad with housemade dressing was acceptable -- the lettuce wasn't too wilted but there wasn't anything interesting or unique about the salad toppings.

What You Should Do: Go if you have to. Now that they aren't located in the Alpine Village apartment complex, I don't think that it is worth the drive, but if you happen to be in Lindon, you'll get full and won't feel like you're getting ripped off. The prices are fairly decent and the portion sizes are large, but....the quest for decent barbecue near BYU continues!